Brussels, 14/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 14 September, under the leadership of the Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, Günter Verheugen, the members of the Competitiveness Group of the Commission - Janez Potocnik (Research), Vladimir Spidla (Employment and Social Affairs), Stavros Dimas (Environment), Neelie Kroes (Competition) et Charlie McCreevy (Internal Market) -discussed the "Better Regulation" initiative launched by Mr Verheugen last March in the context of the revision of the Lisbon Strategy (EUROPE 8911). The Competitiveness Group aimed in particular to focus on the list of legislative proposals pending in the inter-institutional circuit (most of which have already been adopted by the Commission and the Council and are pending at the Parliament), which the Commission hopes to withdraw as part of this initiative. It is worth noting that Better Regulation is based on three pillars: (1) screening of the Commission's legislative proposals pending (some of which have been pending for a very long time) in the inter-institutional circuit, with a view to their withdrawal if they prove to be of no use or suspected to have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the European economy; (2) simplification of legislation and the Community acquis; (3) systematic evaluation of the impact of any new legislative proposal by the Commission on competitiveness.
At the Informal Competitiveness Council, which was held in Cardiff on 11 and 12 July, Mr Verheugen said that his services were in the process of examining no fewer than 215 proposals which the Commission had made before 1 January 2004 and which were still pending in the circuit. He also stressed that if, among these pending proposals, not all of them were related to the economy, almost 115 were genuinely relevant in terms of their impact on competitiveness and that 50% of them could be withdrawn (EUROPE 8990). The Commission spokesperson, Françoise Le Bail, confirmed on Tuesday that nearly 200 proposals had been examined. Ms Le Bail also indicated that the Commission was to present the final list of proposals to be modified, replaced or withdrawn, in Strasbourg on 27 September. A source close to the dossier within Mr Verheugen's Cabinet said that the Commissioner for Industry and President José Manuel Barroso are putting the finishing touches to an "ambitious" list of legislative proposals to be withdrawn. This list is still not definitive, and no definite answers can be given as to the probable number of legislative proposals that the Commission will decide to withdraw.